How to draw manga

Lesson 8: Create a story2

How to make a story interesting

First, when developing a story, it is very important to set characters. Think about characters' characteristics carefully first and foremost. What the characters' personalities are like, what purpose they act with and so on.

If setting characters are well-set, a story develops automatically. It's like a situation that characters move spontaneously.

Make efforts to make a story more interesting by its structure and the way to write it.

Make the opening interesting

An opening is important for story manga. Readers don't read on if they think the story boring. Think about how to appeal to readers and make an opening scene. Make a story look mysterious or surprising? Which scene is used for an opening? ...etc. Also, in the opening, it is important to make a lead character stand out as a lead character and recognizable.

Drop an advance hint

It is to give readers beforehand the information that is used later. Show props, lines or characters' actions etc. impressively to readers in the scenes. However, it is important to make them look as natural as possible for readers. It is ideal that readers find the information (the advance hint) out later, and say like “That was the advance hint."

Highlight characters

It is important to make characters stand out by describing their actions or reactions that make the best use of their personality. Additionally, you can make an episode to do that.

Make one's lines short

If lines in a manga are too long, speech balloons take up too much space and it becomes hard for one to read. Therefore, make one's lines in a manga as short as possible. In order to do that, it is necessary to organize the important information in the line and make lines appropriately. Also, lines show the character's personality, situation (mind), relationship with one who the character talks to and so on. When coming up with lines, consider several patterns.

Practice

Draw a scene that a character waits for another. They meet and have a short conversation. Change the character (their personality etc.) and draw different patternsEach pattern: 200 to 400 words

For example: If the character waiting had a short temper? If the character waiting was a worrier?